38 weeks

Pregnancy: 38 weeks 1 day
Total weight gain: 16.5kg (36.37lbs)
Baby size (approx) head to foot: 49.8cm (19.6in) although all the websites and books differ a bit on the baby size and weight guesstimate
Baby weight (approx): 3.1kg (6.8lbs)

38 weeks, almost there!!!!!!!!! I’ve now had a taste of the hospital after spending 3 hours there on Friday night. I had a bright red bleed (not a whole lot of blood), so I called the hospital straight away. Anytime you are bleeding they want you to come in (unless it is old blood with lots of mucus which at this late in pregnancy, would be the mucus plug. Eww…). Hmmm…should we bring the hospital bag? We decided that we should, just in case. Oh, and the bag with all the snacks and drinks (very important!). We did have to add some things to it first, as it wasn’t quite finished. The bag now lives in the car so it will always be ready. We arrived at 10pm, and they took me to a room which seemed to be used as some sort of check up/recovery/waiting for the doctor room that held 4 beds with curtains around each one (Aaron was parking the car). I was hooked up to a fetal heartbeat monitor and contraction monitor by a midwife as soon as I got there. We found the fetal heartbeat monitor is kinda like a campfire, you just can’t stop watching it. Then the questions started. “Is the bleed from high in your vagina, or low.” Um…if I knew that, I wouldn’t need to be here now would I? “When was your last anti-d shot (because I have a negative blood type)?” Hmmm… week before last? You have my chart right there in your hand, why don’t you open it?? “Why did you get your last anti-d shot?” Because they told me to. I certainly didn’t invite a shot in my butt. What kind of a question is that? How am I supposed to answer that? “Where is your placenta.” Now the only reason I knew the answer to that question is because I had an ultrasound to find out if it was too low still. I’m quite sure that normally, people don’t know that. Seriously lady, have a gander at my file that is in your hot little hands, all this info and more is contained there. “What were you doing when you started bleeding.” Oh the embarrassing question… I had just finished using the epi-no. I figured this is why I was bleeding, just a bit of over zealous inflation resulting in a little tear, but they have to be sure…. She said the baby is doing great, it seems like i’ve just had a small tear low down, not anything to do with the baby or my cervix, but I would need to wait for the doctor for the final “you can go home now.” And so we waited…. And waited…. Apparently the ward was busy that night. Lots of babies being born. A couple of times I heard faint screaming followed closely by little baby cries. The rooms are mostly soundproof at least. Meanwhile, the person to the left of me (only separated by a curtain) was also attached to a fetal heart rate monitor, only her baby’s heart rate was going crazy and kept setting off an alarm (which was driving us nuts, it was so loud, and continuously going off). Seems she can’t go home until her baby’s heart rate settles down into a normal range. A bit later, they wheeled someone in who had just had a baby and then gone into theatre for a small surgery. Some of her placenta did not come out and was stuck inside. She had to have it removed surgically and then they inflated a balloon inside her uterus to prevent it from collapsing (or something along those lines. Your only separated by a curtain, so you can hear everything, but at the same time, do you try actively not to hear, to you just casually listen, do you actively listen to find out what sort of problems you can have in your own labour, what do you do? I didn’t hear every single work, so I’m not 100% sure about why the balloon was there, or when it would be removed. We could hear her baby crying, so it too was there with her. Every time Mushi moved around, his heart rate would go up, then back down again when he stopped. That is normal though. We were also amused watching the contraction monitor. It was usually quite low, between 10 and 20 (not that we know what those numbers meant), but then it climbed all the way to 80 for a little bit, then went back down. I didn’t feel any pain or anything, my belly just felt a bit tight if you touched it. Hello Braxton Hicks. I thought I’d only had one of those (because I had one that was quite painful), but I’ve been proven wrong. I just didn’t know that I was having them. Good uterus, try not to cause me too much pain.

Finally, 3 hours after coming in, we finally saw the doctor. I had to remove my clothing from my lower half to have an invasive exam. In goes Mr. Speculum, another person is there to shine a torch into my nether region, and the doc checks my cervix. No sign of trauma, cervix hasn’t started softening or dilating yet, and all is well. I just tore myself a little tiny bit with my epi-no (I got it pretty big, but I got it the same size the day before. It really does feel like giving birth when you push it out when it’s fairly big. Only it’s not as big as a baby’s head, so it gives you that feeling without all the pain. I feel much more empowered knowing the kind of feeling there will be though. It’s not so scary anymore). Doctors orders “No sex or epi-no for a few days to let yourself heal, then you will be fine.” We gathered all of our stuff (I brought water and a magazine, had taken off my shoes and coat), and then Aaron went to go get the car. Just when I thought we were free, the nurse came up and said to wait a couple of minutes, I may need a blood test. Awesome. Blood test at 1am while Aaron has already left to go get the car. Sure enough, they did want to take my blood. Wanted to make sure I had enough antibodies for the rh factor (you get them from the anti-d shot). I thought maybe I’d have to wait ages again for the doctor, but they were all about to perform a c-section, so they got to me right away so they could then go operate. And finally we got to go home. I think I will be more comfortable in the delivery room now after spending 3 hours in the hospital bed though, so it wasn’t all bad.

We had a very busy day the next day. We woke up late, had an hour and 15 minutes to shower, eat, get ready, grocery shop, get some weight plates and weight bench, then get to our friends house for lunch. Needless to say, we were 45 minutes late, but that was still a really good effort I thought. Next up was a manicure party for another friends birthday (for me, Aaron stayed at the other friends house and played wii with the boys). We gave ourselves lots of time to get there, but it was pouring down rain and Sydney drivers are not so used to that, so traffic was crawling. Then we discovered none of us had the unit number we needed to go to and we couldn’t get a hold of the boys to find out for us. Eventually we did though. We entered an apartment building, but oddly it didn’t say it’s address anywhere (helpful, I know). We decided chances are this is probably the right place, so we buzzed the unit number. Some man answered and didn’t seem to speak a lot of english, or just had no idea what was going on, but buzzed us up. Hmmm…. We got in the lift where we finally found the address of the building (on a little plaque thing in the lift), and found we were not in the right place. We’re not quite sure why he buzzed randoms like us up, but whatever floats your boat. We didn’t go up though, so he was probably very confused after that. We did find the right place, and had a good time at the party.

As soon as I got home, Aaron and I were going to visit Grandma and The Jess for dinner. It was still raining out, and I was nervous, but it was time for me to drive all the way to Penrith (I’m learning to drive our manual car). I successfully got us there in one piece (after missing the entrance to the motorway and having to turn around). Long day, but good. Yesterday we had a good rest.

I have been studying the “Becoming an Australian Citizen” guide this week as I take the test tomorrow. Australians don’t even know the answers to a lot of the questions. I don’t really know why I need to know which Australian’s over the years have won the nobel prize, why and what year, in order to be a citizen. Wouldn’t speaking english fluently be more useful since Australia is an english speaking country? Some of the questions and info is good, especially if you come from a completely different culture and have no idea what would be expected of you as a citizen, but then some of it is just ridiculous. Oh well, I have to take the test to become a citizen, so wish me luck! FYI, the national flower is the golden wattle, and Australia’s constitution came into effect 1 Jan 1901.

37 weeks

Pregnancy: 37 weeks 1 day
Total weight gain: 15.8kgs (34.83lbs)
Baby size (approx head to foot): 48.6cm (19.13in)
Baby weight (approx): 2.8kg (6.17lbs)

I’ve been getting nosebleeds on a near daily (nightly to be more accurate) basis. I woke up with one last night, and have had one 4 in the past 6 nights. Only my left nostril though, nothing from my right. I guess if the little blood vessels in my right nostril would like to escape, they will first have to emigrate to my left nostril. Then they can burst and go free just like their lefty neighbors. I’m beginning to think that maybe my left side is just defective. When I was little, it was one of my left toes that broke when my horse backed into a fence, scared the bollocks out of herself, jumped forward, and landed on my foot. I broke my left leg, and then a bone tumor and bone graft in my left leg (ok, so my leg broke because of the tumor, but that is not the point). It was my left that had a lump that needed a biopsy (cancer free, but not a fun process). My left eye’s vision is worse then my right. And now, my left nostril likes to gush blood in the middle of the night (nosebleeds are normal for pregnant women. I asked at my last appointment just to be sure). It’s no wonder Mushi likes to reside in the right side of my uterus.

I’ve finally bitten the bullet and given the epi-no a go. I can’t say that it’s at all pleasant, but each time I use it, I can blow up the blue silicone contraption a little bigger then the last time. Hopefully my lovely perineum will remember all the work I’ve put into it, and while I’m giving birth, not tear on me. I have to hold the contraption in place the entire time because it seems the female body doesn’t like such torture and tries to push it out all by itself. I suppose that comes in handy during delivery though.

I am still having very vivid dreams (a normal part of being pregnant). The other night I woke myself up with my “don’t tickle me” grunt/whingy noise, and really thought that Aaron was tickling my feet. Poor Aaron didn’t know what was going on when I told him to stop tickling me. Turns out I was dreaming. Other dreams are quite vivid too, but I know they are not actually real because they usually include things like my pony talking to me, or being on the Island from Lost with Aaron trying to figure out what the heck is going on. It’s the realistic dreams that cause problems. I couldn’t figure out if I actually had a conversation with Aaron about going grocery shopping together, or if I dreamt the conversation. I had to ask him, only to find that it was indeed a dream. I like the strange dreams better, at least I know they aren’t real.

height (measurement from pubic bone to top of uterus) was actually less then the week before because Mushi has descended into my pelvis (not all the way, but most of the way). I knew when he was doing it because of all the wiggling, but the next day, we could actually see that my belly was lower. At my last hospital appointment on Friday, my fundalMushi has moved down and they can’t measure accurately when the head is in the pelvis (as it is lower then the pubic bone). This new position brings good and bad news. The good news is my lungs have a bit more space, as does my stomach, so I can eat a full meal without feeling sick. The back news is every time I stand up, I feel like I have to pee (due to a head putting pressure on my bladder).

How to torture a pregnant woman: Get a wonderful looking piece of chocolate cake (with strawberry on the side, and chocolate sauce zigzagging back and forth over the top), keep it in front of you for half an hour, but don’t eat one little bit of it. Don’t even touch the spoon. But, don’t offer it to anyone else, just leave it there, making the pregnant woman next to you wonder the whole time if you are ever going to eat it. Aaron and I were on a comedy cruise around Sydney Harbour on Saturday, and that is exactly what happened. Aaron and I were both served the cheesecake (which was very yummy), but were hoping that they would do the traditional thing and alternate the 2 dishes with every other person. We had it all figured out before they started serving that we would go halves so we got to try both. The person next to me didn’t take even one little taste of his cake, so I was tortured by it staring at me, wanting me to eat it for quite some time. By the time we docked, it was still sitting there, but the man who it belonged to had not come back to the table. I contemplated grabbing it many times, but we were at a table with lots of randoms, and I’m sure that would’ve looked a bit sketchy. I like to tell myself that it didn’t taste very good as no one who had the chocolate cake finished it, and everyone who had the cheesecake left no remnants on their plates.

as her attire allowed her legs plenty of moving room. Her skirt only came down to the end of her bottom. I don’t know how someone can leave the house in such clothing. 1) wouldn’t they be cold, it’s winter! 2) wouldn’t they be “You may have seen our first guest on The Footy Show, or Rove Live. Give it up for (insert name here, I can’t remember what his name is). Hmmm…. He certainly does look familiar…. Oh, they should have said “or you may have seen him keeping you in good spirits and amusing you during ad breaks if you have been in the audience for Ready Steady Cook.” That is where I’d seen him before (which I thought was hilarious and random). He was very funny, especially when poking fun at the guy from Rooty Hill with a mullet at the first table. There were a couple of disturbances early in the night though. One of the passengers missed the boat and then got a water taxi to bring him to us in the middle of the harbour. It cost him $80 which was more then the cruise itself. We felt comforted after seeing the water taxi pull up though. At least we knew if my water broke or something, all we had to do was call a water taxi and we could high tail it off the boat (luckily we didn’t need to). Later, a girl fell down the last couple of stairs from the top deck. I don’t know how that happenedembarrassed (I would!)? 3)wouldn’t they be worried that the tiny skirt would head north and expose their bottom and nether region?? 4) is it really necessary to show that much skin? The cruise was very fun though, we had a really good night out.

My pregnancy books are telling me to get as much rest as I can from now as labour is very tiring etc. Ok then, if the books say so… I’m going to spend half the day with my feet up. I like that idea.

36 weeks

Pregnancy: 36 weeks 2 days
Total weight gain: 15.5kgs (34.17lbs)
Baby size (head to toe): 47cm (18.5in)
Baby weight (approx): 2.6kg (5.7lbs)

It seems I’m getting bigger and more awkward by the day. My involuntary grunting noises when getting up are getting louder, my feet swell more, I get more reflux, I have to pee more often, my internal organs are getting more squished, and feet in my ribs are becoming more frequent. But, it’s all part of the experience, and I know that soon we will have a little bundle of joy. I am to the point where I just want to get it out of me though. I think you know you’re ready when the “get it out of me” feeling becomes stronger then the fear of labour itself. I’m certainly getting to that point, and fast.

Last week was my first week off work. I feel so much less tired now that I don’t have to wake up at 5:15 every morning. Now the alarm goes off at 6:30 (for Aaron), but I don’t get up until 7 which is awesome!

The other night Aaron showed me a website called broken telephone picture (http://www.brokenpicturetelephone.com/). It’s like telephone (chinese whispers for the aussies), but the first person writes something down (can be anything, like half human, half bear, half pig (I know that doesn’t equate, but it’s funny), eating a pie), then the next person has to draw it. The person after that gets the drawing and has to write it, then the next person draws it and so on. I don’t think I’ve laughed so much since the hypnotist show in Vegas. I was laughing so hard, I was honestly scared that I might A) wet myself or B) prematurely break my waters. Luckily neither happened, but if it had, I would have been unsure if I had wet myself, or my waters had broken. I can just see that, going to hospital saying my waters broke, docs have a look, give me a puzzled expression, then tell me I must have wet myself because my waters are indeed intact. Note to self: do more pelvic floor exercises, just in case….

Speaking of that region, my shiny new epi-no came in the mail last week. What is an epi-no exactly, you ask? The epi-no is a contraption made of some sort of squishy, maybe soft plastic material that is attached to a little hand pump ball. You put the blue squishy oval thing in your nether region, then pump the ball so that the blue squishy thing expands, therefore stretching your perineum. It is supposed to make you less likely to tear or need an episiotomy during childbirth. As I’ve said before, anything to lower that risk, I’m going to try. You can also use it to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles before and after birth (so you don’t wet yourself…).

My second baby shower (put on by my church) was on Saturday, and I had a lot of fun. There was a game where everyone had to bring a baby picture of themselves, then we had to guess which one was who. I only got 2 correct. Newborns don’t look anything like what the older person will look like! I know I certainly didn’t (I’ll put a photo of myself on here just to prove my point…). There was so much food there! Cupcakes, cake, some sort of chocolate slice, peanut butter cookies, muffins, quiche (which was really really yummy!), it was all so tasty!!!!!!!! I got lots more good baby stuff too, which means we don’t have to buy too much stuff.

Yesterday we went to the supermarket and fruit shop to get some groceries. I have been craving pudding for a week now (yes I’m strange, but we all know this), so we wandered around Coles looking for the pudding aisle, and couldn’t find it anywhere! How dare Coles hide the pudding from me. They should have a giant flashing sign with arrows that points me in the right direction. Or at the very least put pudding (or even jello/jelly, since they’d be on the same aisle) on the sign that tells you what is in each aisle. I still don’t have my pudding. I’m going to try a different coles on Wednesday.

We decided to go to Kmart while we were at the chase (the shopping centre where we went to coles and the fruit shop) to get a cute little dresser for Mushi that we had seen there a while back. The Chase is doing lots of renovating and remodelling, and adding of sections, and even though Kmart is staying exactly where it has been for years, Kmart is remodelling. Every time we go there, things are in a different spot. We wandered around the store for quite some time looking for said cute dresser with no luck. We finally asked someone who worked there (when we could find one that wasn’t already trying to show someone else where to find something) who pointed us towards one end of the store. No dresser there. We asked someone else. They pointed us in a different direction. On our way over, we saw someone else and asked again (we had already been where we are going and didn’t see any furniture). Person number 3 pointed us in an entirely different direction. We decided to follow 3rd person’s directions via 2nd persons, just in case. Good decision, we found the dresser hiding on the back wall with a couple of other dressers just where person 2 told us they would be. They used to keep all of the furniture together, but it seems now everything is everywhere. At least we got the dresser. Now we actually have somewhere to put Mushi’s clothes. Bonus, the dresser has a giraffe on it, is very cute, and was only $50.

I haven’t said anything about the “baby brain” for a while now, but I’ve certainly still got it. We went to church on Sunday after eating dinner (we go to the evening service) only to discover when we got home that I had left the oven on the entire time. I’m glad I didn’t burn the house down!

As of next week, I will be considered full term, so not long now!!!!!!!!!!!